Iron is administered to piglets between third to fifth day (3-5day) after birth. This helps in supplying oxygen to all parts of the body and to prevent anaemia.
How to administer iron for piglets
Administering an iron supplement to your piglets is simple.
For an iron treatment to be effective, it needs to be administered properly.
There are a number of ways to administer iron for piglets. Iron injections offer more value and are preferred over oral iron supplements because an injection ensures each piglet gets the exact iron dose it needs. Oral supplementation depends on the amount of food or water the piglet consumes – or does not consume – and therefore carries a risk of the piglet receiving either too little or too much iron.
It is recommended best practice to give your piglets a full 200 mg dose in a 1 ml iron supplement injection. This means you only need to give your piglet one dose, which saves you time and minimizes the risk of leakage observed with 2 ml injections. And minimizing leakage ensures no iron is wasted – and each piglet gets the full dose of iron it needs to grow and be healthy.
There are a number of possible injection sites on a piglet, but it is normally recommended to administer an iron injection in one of the following places:
Behind the ear
In the hind limb/ham muscle*
In the inguinal fold
- This is not recommended by some veterinarians due to potential risk of damaging the ham
There are two ways to injection iron: intramuscularly (im) or subcutaneously (sc or sq).
Intramuscular injections are given deep into the muscle with a relatively long needle – up to 20 mm.
Subcutaneous injections are given just under the skin with a shorter needle, normally 10 mm.